Election Day Is Here; Will Emanuel Avoid A Runoff?
Updated 02/24/15 - 8:04 p.m.
CHICAGO (CBS) -- The campaigning is over and the polls are now closed as Chicagoans have cast their votes for mayor and alderman.
The key question in the race for mayor is whether Mayor Rahm Emanuel can get the 50 percent plus one vote he needs to avoid a runoff, or whether one of his four challengers will get the chance to take him on head-to-head in April.
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With 68 percent of the precincts reporting, Mayor Emanuel was under the threshold needed to avoid the runoff at 46 percent. Garcia had 34 percent of the vote with Willie Wilson at 10 percent, Alderman Bob Fioretti at 7 percent and William "Dock" Walls in last at 3 percent.
Officials have said the turnout appears to be lower than the last mayoral election. Chicago Board of Elections Communications Director James Allen says he doesn't expect to reach the 42 percent voter turnout from the municipal election four years ago.
"As we cautioned when the early voting numbers were coming in and we were setting a new high mark for the municipal election, we did not think it was an indicator of how turnout would be," Allen said.
Allen says he's hoping voter turnout will reach 33 percent.
Emanuel was manning phone banks Tuesday, calling voters to remind them to cast a ballot.
"Yeah, Rahm Emanuel. Do you know another Emanuel?" he said after calling one Chicagoan. "The city of Chicago can only afford one Rahm Emanuel, ma'am."
He also greeted volunteers at a field office in the 8th Ward, and thanked campaign workers for their help.
Fioretti said he had his usual breakfast of grits, raisin bread, and coffee for breakfast to get him ready to hit the ground running, and campaign until the very end of Election Day. He said he's convinced there will be a runoff in April, because Chicagoans are unhappy with Emanuel.
"They have one foot out the door. They want to leave here. They don't feel proud of what they see. They just feel the quality of life has not improved in the last four, last eight years, and they want a new direction. If we can get those people to come to the polls and vote, then we win this election," he said.
Fioretti, Garcia, and Walls all cast ballots on Tuesday. Emanuel and Wilson voted early.
According to polls, Garcia is Emanuel's closest rival, and most likely to face the incumbent in a runoff if the mayor does not win outright on Tuesday. He stopped at a 23rd Ward polling place on the Southwest Side before casting his vote in the Little Village neighborhood. Garcia predicted he'll force a runoff, saying he received a surge of support in just the last week.
Wilson said voters should not let pre-election polls discourage them from voting.
"We know those polls are not real," he said.
Walls said voters are "fed up" with the Emanuel administration.
"We're doing a whole lot better than you guys think, and you will be surprised," he said.
If Emanuel doesn't win a majority of the votes on Tuesday, he'll face the second-place candidate in an April runoff.
Most polls closed at 7 p.m. Tuesday, except at four precincts where voting continued until 8 p.m.
The four precincts are:
